Mayhem after powerful quake

CALAMITY: SOME DEATHS, MORE THAN 300 INJURED

Japan sits on the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’ where quakes, eruptions are recorded.

Apowerful earthquake rocked Japan’s second city of Osaka yesterday, killing three including a nine-yearold girl and injuring more than 300, according to an official tally.

TV images showed buildings swaying and burst pipes spewing water after the quake, which struck at the height of rush hour in the city of about two million.

However, there was no largescale destruction and no tsunami warning issued after the earthquake, although commuters were stranded and tens of thousands were left without power.

Among the casualties was a nine-year-old girl who died in the city of Takatsuki, north of Osaka, reportedly trapped by a wall following the 5.3-magnitude quake.

Officials said that the other two dead were an 80-year-old man – killed by a collapsing wall – and an 84-year-old man trapped under a bookcase in his home.

The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said over 300 people were injured in total, but many of them suffered minor injuries.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his government was “working united, with its first priority on saving people’s lives”.

“Gas supply has still been stopped at more than 100 000 houses while water outage continued in large areas,” Abe told his ministers and state officials later in the day.

“I want you to make your utmost effort to restore public transport as well as gas and water supplies,” he added. And government spokesperson Yoshihide Suga cautioned there was a possibility of strong aftershocks.

“Large-scale quakes are likely to happen in the next two to three days,” Suga told reporters.

Japan sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where many of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are recorded.

On March 11, 2011, a devastating magnitude 9.0 quake struck under the Pacific Ocean, and the resulting tsunami caused widespread damage and claimed thousands of lives. It also sent three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing Japan’s worst postwar disaster and the most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

Osaka residents described the moment the quake jolted the highly urbanised area at 8am, when platforms would have been heaving with passengers waiting to board their commuter trains.

“The floor moved violently. It was a strong vertical jolt. Nearly all of the dishes fell and shattered on the floor,” said Kaori Iwakiri, 50, a nurse in Moriguchi, north of Osaka city. “My parents suffered a blackout and they have no water.”

Despite its relatively low magnitude, the quake caused quite a shake, registering a lower six on the Japanese experiential scale of up to seven – meaning it is hard to stay standing. – AFP